Unravelling the light controlling switch in Cyanobacteria
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Birmingham
Department Name: Sch of Biosciences
Abstract
Carbon dioxide levels are increasing rapidly causing global warming. Despite the current efforts in place, scientists predict carbon dioxide levels will continue to rise and innovative methods to sequester carbon are needed. Approximately 2 billion years ago, microorganisms called cyanobacteria removed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere causing the great oxygen event that enabled life as we know it to be created. Can cyanobacteria again solve the crisis we are seeing today?
Cyanobacteria capture a broad spectrum of light during photosynthesis enabling them to sequester carbon more effectively compared with plants or trees. Yet, energy transfer during photosynthesis does not occur effectively all the time. By applying an innovative, state-of-the-art analytical approach, we have for the first time identified a mechanism within cyanobacteria's light-harvesting machinery that the organism uses to limit energy transfer during photosynthesis, thus rendering photosynthesis inefficient. Using an inter-disciplinary team of molecular biologists, structural biologists, analytical chemists and experts in photophysics, this proposal seeks to determine the precise role of this newly found molecular switch within cyanobacteria and use this knowledge to engineer cyanobacteria with enhanced photosynthetic properties for use by the renewable energy industries to enhance carbon sequestration.
Cyanobacteria capture a broad spectrum of light during photosynthesis enabling them to sequester carbon more effectively compared with plants or trees. Yet, energy transfer during photosynthesis does not occur effectively all the time. By applying an innovative, state-of-the-art analytical approach, we have for the first time identified a mechanism within cyanobacteria's light-harvesting machinery that the organism uses to limit energy transfer during photosynthesis, thus rendering photosynthesis inefficient. Using an inter-disciplinary team of molecular biologists, structural biologists, analytical chemists and experts in photophysics, this proposal seeks to determine the precise role of this newly found molecular switch within cyanobacteria and use this knowledge to engineer cyanobacteria with enhanced photosynthetic properties for use by the renewable energy industries to enhance carbon sequestration.
Technical Summary
Enhancing natural carbon sequestration mechanisms, such as photosynthesis, is a promising route to mitigate climate change. However, photosynthesis is not always efficient. Moreover, how solar energy is captured and carefully transmitted to chemical energy is poorly understood. Enhanced understanding of photosynthetic regulation within cyanobacteria is essential for us to capatilise on the benefits of natural carbon sequestration mechanisms.
This proposal will apply structural mass spectrometry to identify proteins that become modified within the light-harvesting complex of cyanobacteria, the phycobilisome, to control energy transfer during photosynthesis. By combining X-ray crystallography, time resolved fluorescence spectroscopy and ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy, we aim to define the role that our newly identified protein post-translational modification, glutathionylation, has in energy transfer and the mechanisms behind the role of glutathionylation in photosynthetic control. Finally, we will use gene-editing techniques to modify cyanobacteria's glutathionylation switch in vivo and build strains whereby energy transfer within the phycobilisome is consistently enhanced.
The results of this project will have high impacts in the academic community amongst structural biologists, biophysicists, analytical chemists and within the cyanobacterial and photosynthesis research communities in addition to creating enhanced natural carbon sequestration methods to mitigate climate change - the knowledge gained will be commercially translatable in enhancing cyanobacterial growth for enhanced product formation in the cyanobiotechnology industry sector.
This proposal will apply structural mass spectrometry to identify proteins that become modified within the light-harvesting complex of cyanobacteria, the phycobilisome, to control energy transfer during photosynthesis. By combining X-ray crystallography, time resolved fluorescence spectroscopy and ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy, we aim to define the role that our newly identified protein post-translational modification, glutathionylation, has in energy transfer and the mechanisms behind the role of glutathionylation in photosynthetic control. Finally, we will use gene-editing techniques to modify cyanobacteria's glutathionylation switch in vivo and build strains whereby energy transfer within the phycobilisome is consistently enhanced.
The results of this project will have high impacts in the academic community amongst structural biologists, biophysicists, analytical chemists and within the cyanobacterial and photosynthesis research communities in addition to creating enhanced natural carbon sequestration methods to mitigate climate change - the knowledge gained will be commercially translatable in enhancing cyanobacterial growth for enhanced product formation in the cyanobiotechnology industry sector.
